Monthly Archives: October 2007

Virtual Worlds Forum Blog » Blog Archive » Top 10 takeaways from the first day of VWFE 2007

10. Virtual worlds set up by toy manufacturers.
Another point from Lord Puttnam’s keynote, casting doubt on whether it’s such a good idea for toy firms to be launching their own virtual worlds – Mattel (with Barbie) and Lego being two examples. The idea of child entertainment funded by toymakers isn’t new (He-Man and Transformers, anyone?), but Lego’s Mark William Hansen had an elegant and considered response, pointing out that a virtual world launched purely to sell products is bad – but that kids will see that most quickly, and desert it.

Virtual Worlds Forum Blog » Blog Archive » Top 10 takeaways from the first day of VWFE 2007

I completely agree with this.  The first question that that needs to be asked when the topic of a virtual world (or any community initiative) comes up is “Why do we need/want it?”  It is the job of the web strategist to find the root of the request and to deal with the answer frankly. 

If the goal of adding community is to increase sales of offline product alone, community is probably not the correct strategy.  Starting a community is difficult work, maintaining one is even harder.  And there are risks involved that have to be dealt with in much more faster and comprehensive ways than just releasing a press release.

If the goal is, rather, to engage your audience in a very personal way with your brand and/or product, then you are starting on the right foot.  Sure, selling products is a fine goal, it’s the easiest way to sustain the community and makes complete sense, especially if the community is involved in some way.  But it shouldn’t be the primary goal – if it is, there are easier ways to achieve it.

Creating a community or virtual world is not a small decision, nor is it a finite decision either.  It’s funny to me how the enormity of a concept diminishes when the words become more common.  “Community” and “World” are BIG concepts – they are (or should be) big strategies for a company to adopt as well.

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Community Guy – Jake McKee » Community Contest 2007: Learning to Share

Any robust community is all about sharing; it’s what powers the group. Without an open exchange of ideas, content, and kind words, you don’t have community you merely have a group. Sharing is the social glue that creates long lasting relationships.

In a quest to reduce risk, holding their cards close to the vest, business has forgotten how to share. Your customers & community members what you to pass along information, give them insight into the company/brand they love, and create a relationship that’s based on a collaboration. Trust is built through this collaboration, and trust is a core tenet of customer interaction.

To kick off the Community Contest 2007, you have to learn to give something away before you see the reward. You have to trust that your sharing will return something positive…

Community Guy – Jake McKee » Community Contest 2007: Learning to Share

I love games and contests and Jake McKee from CommunityGuy.com is
kicking off a series of contests about community – for prizes even! 

The first one is so simple to win you would be a fool not to go and check it out.  I am sure they will get more challenging, so now is your chance to win… and share.

Good Luck!

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Proactive online content for kids

Those of us who understand the positive aspects of online play need to help shape the climate online in the next couple years. Gone are the days of bragging about how your child knows so much more about technology/computers/internet than you do. More and more of our lives are being spent online. Let’s treat that sea change with a bit more respect than simple awe/wonder.

If we don’t want EVERY brand space online to be blatant consumerism with no message or goal, we have to be proactive about preventing that from happening. We must work toward not just calling out the bad sites, but creating and commending the good sites. And not just ones that give lip-service to more holistic goals – ones that actually step up and do it.

I ducked out of the Kids and Teens talk at the Virtual Worlds conference last week in order to see a young girl doll brand case study. Oy vey, was that a hard one to sit through. The developer giving the talk continually talked sarcastically about the girly brand that he developed, which showed me that he didn’t respect the audience and community the site was trying to develop. How can you create a great community if you don’t care about them?

Through his talk, he talked a couple times about the core values of “Empowerment” etc that the site’s founders wanted to convey in the virtual world. But almost in the same breath, he would reiterate multiple times that the only purpose for the site was to “sell more dolls.” Makes you wonder if the brand managers of those dolls know and care how their brand is being conveyed to conference audiences and their online community.

If “to sell more dolls” is truly the reason that the parent company wanted to launch this world, fine. They certainly are not alone. But that doesn’t mean all the other sites that will be developed in this category have to be like that.

Sesame Street’s Panwapa world is a cool approach to get into a space that is bound to be crowded in the next 2 years – preschool to early readers, 4-7 year olds. Kudos to them for being there before anyone else with a solid idea for a world (and not just the mindless wandering and silly games that make up almost every world in this space).

Whether we like it or not, a child is assimilated into the tech space earlier and earlier as the years go by. To pretend that this isn’t happening or block the kids from sites on a micro level is not the way to improve the situation. It’s the ostrich effect and doesn’t improve anything for anyone, especially the kids.

People who grew up with technology are now having kids. These younger generation parents have less or no aversion to introducing their kids to the online/tech coolness that they have grown up with. As producers of content (be it for a marketing purpose or pure creative), we have to develop for the parents AND the kids. These younger parents will still want the educational aspects that the past decade of attentive parents wanted, but the younger parents understand all of this on another level. Many of them understand that you can have fun, build relationships, and develop as a human online. They also understand the importance of design, navigation and user interface in your online experience. AND they will, directly or indirectly, teach these concepts to their kids.

Hopefully the content will start to catch up with paradigm shift that is happening world-wide as I type. Is your content up to the task?

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Virtual Worlds 2007 Visionaries Panel

Visionary Panel – Where the Platforms Are Going Next
The media has been largely dominated by one virtual worlds platform but innovation is coming fast and furious on multiple fronts from multiple vendors. This one-of-a-kind session brings together the visionaries of the major platform companies for an interactive discussion on the future of the virtual worlds platform.  Join us for a session you won’t want to miss.
- Christopher Klaus, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kaneva
- Raph Koster, President, Areae, Inc.
- Michael Wilson, CEO, Makena Technologies
- Hui Xu, Founder & CEO, HiPiHi Co., Ltd
- Stephen Lawler, General Manager of Virtual Earth, Microsoft
- Corey Bridges, Co-founder, Executive Producer, & Marketing Director, The Multiverse Network
- Mark Wallace, blogger , 3pointD.com (moderator)

What does the future look like?
- A Common App is needed – so that all the worlds are not so compartmentalized and there is greater portabilty
- More incorporation of Social Networking features and games
- Usability hurdles need to be dealt with – the average person still finds most VWs to be too difficult and there is little being done for the mobile platform
- Controlled Identity management to all you to manage all of your identities in all of your worlds, with your own criteria for privacy and transparency

3D/Social Search Fans
    – “3D is a red herring” Raph Koster
        – we should be talking about 3D not as the next big thing, but as an aspect
        – More important question is regarding what we are using these space for and ding inside of them
        – 3D doesn’t work for everything – shopping market

Hui Xu, HiPiHi CEO, brought up how non-multiculti the crowd was
- he felt that culture blending and learning form other cultures was the biggest potential for these worlds
- No standard language exists to discuss these spaces yet, we don’t have a multi-lingual tool to bridge the gaps and we don’t have the world view mind set to talk theoretically yet.

The web migrated monetization models
= Subscription > Commerce/Ads
- vws have to do the same
- Migration needs to be Ads > Goods > Services
    – new toys are helping this transition
   
QQ (?) service – IM, Virtual E-commerce

Mobile Phone banking is very big overseas now

Local search is an opportunity to monetize
- ads need to excel in AI to raise relavancy

Mirror worlds will be the link to the Mass market
- Education contexts
- MS Live maps – Accurate to 4 inches
- Real versus Imaginary
- Melt content – reenact a bank robbery from earlier

“We are in the bookstore business – not the fiction or non-fiction business” – need to stop seeing everything as mutually exclusive

“Blogging in 3D is dumb” – Raph Koster

Representationally Agnostic
- data will show up how the user want it

3D is hard form many populations to grasp
- kids, older, etc
- it is not the holy grail

We need to jump over the now and next and think about later

Wii-mote and Hardware is helping innovation
- 3D mouse

Multiverse is sketchup compatible

Language – vulcanization of cultures
- there are translators for vws

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Virtual Worlds 2007: VWs and the music industry

Virtual Worlds and the Music Industry
It began with the rise of iTunes, the shift from reaching fans via traditional methods like selling CD’s to reaching them via the Internet. And now, as an extension of the Internet/iTunes popularity, musicians are reaching their fans in virtual worlds. The truth is that artists know their fans are online and virtual worlds are the perfect venue to reach them. In fact, artists are dropping new albums in virtual worlds to increase subsequent CD sales as well as holding live virtual events to reach fans across the world. And with virtual worlds showing huge increases in registered users, you can expect to see more mainstream artists building better name recognition and more personal relationships with their fans via their avatar.
- Dorcas Casey, VP of Project Strategy & Development, FunWebProduct
- Tim Stevens, President and CEO, Doppelganger

- Matt Bostwick, SVP, Franchise Development, MTV Music Group
- Greg Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, GGL Global Gaming (moderator)

MTV

4d tv
- integrating what you see on tv with vw’s
- start on tv and then migrate to the vw

showed a promo for virtual mtv with artists appearances in world
- 30 major artists and emerging artisits

Zwinky

- launched ecommerce and micro transactions
- 13-18 is primary audience
- 50 cent boutique launched this year
- stage Z – 24 hours of programming, 175k users over
- profiles of celebrities

Vside
- virtual nightclub
- created a whole city of bars
- 40 radio stations, moving up to clubs
- emerging band

There was more of a tone of “wonder” with this panel while I was in there.  I opted to go to the otehr panel on web based vws instead which turned out to be much more spirited nad less idyllic.

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Virtual wrolds 2007: TyGirlz.com case study

Case Study: TyGirlz.com – Building the First Virtual World for Girls
What does it take to develop a kids virtual world from the ground up? From concept, to design to ongoing updates and user community issues: come find out how to develop a highly scaleable web-based virtual world. Animax Entertainment, the developers of the TyGirlz.com virtual world for toy company Ty, Inc.’s Ty Girlz brand will share best practices established during the development of the TyGirlz.com web site and virtual world.
- Michael Bellavia, Managing Director, Animax Entertainment

- creates character driven content and experiences for all screens
- founded in 2001
- hq: LA/Toronto & Kiev
- staff of 95
- 2005 winner of first ever broadband emmy
- 2006 nominated for another family
- webbys, web awards, LA Ad club

- lean back – broadcast animation
- lean forward – websites, games, vws, interatcive learning
- clients: ty, film roman, kodak, abc family, bet,
- white label apprach to vw developemnt

producers guild new media council
american film institue new media

Were charged to produce a kid safe, girl focused vw for a new product intro in a crowded competitive makrtet…
- they took it as simply “sell more dolls”

rfp was recieved in january
- finished in 2 months
- partnered with tokenzo (?)

others in space (that I haven’t explored yet)
- maple story
- horseland
- shinging stars
- kookeys
- t-works

rather inappropriate presenter
- dissed some of his competitor and had very sarcastic tone with client
- said that when users ask about boys in the world it “gets the girls all titilated” (?!)
- said 3D avs are creepy in this space/demo

must haves:
- focus on kids and specifically girls
- focus on safety – clised-end, controlled, moderated environment
- no ads
- simple
- lo-fi vs hi-fi
- browser based, no downloads
- virtual economy
- virtual rewards
- no subscription fees
- tiers

- pure flash front end
- as2 transitioning to as3
- mult development teams in mutl time zones

topics he think are still not resolved:
- can you launch a toy without web presence
- does a toy have value?
- is there value in being the indoctrinator of virtual world play patterns?
- can you transition kids to more age appropriate worlds as they grow older? can you “own” them?
- how many profiles will kids maintian? is there an opportunity for cooperation across species?
- does kid fickle factor ovrcome switching costs
- do kids get as jazzed as adults by new technologies wll they prefer smart toys or even playful devices over toys are toys dead?
- will parents get fed up?

question: size of support team?
- initally had moderators that were visible
- now moderators are not visible
- moderation is contracted out. didn’t say who by

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Virtual Worlds 2007 – Designing Stickier Virtual Worlds Talk

Technical Perspective: Designing Stickier Virtual Worlds Builds
What are the key elements of a truly engaging build that can attract and retain significant avatar traffic, and what level of technical complexity is involved in creating them? This presentation will explore how design and ongoing creative programming can keep digital tumbleweed from blowing across an island, and specifically describe some of the technical challenges and solutions associated with innovative programming. It is intended to help brand managers and developers get a behind-the-scenes sense of the work that goes into a virtual world campaign, along with costs and technical complexity associated with various activities. This presentation is for technically sophisticated brand managers, creative staff with technical experience, and developers. It will require an intermediate understanding of basic principles and technologies underlying virtual worlds. Attendees will gain perspective from the intersection of creative programming and technical logistics, learning: -the technical possibilities and limitations of virtual worlds platforms -how near- and long-term technical advancements will expand the possibilities for creative programming.
- Christian Lassonde, President, Millions of Us Inc.

Wht is sticky?  What makes the experience sticky?  What have we leaberned from previous media

Classic example – ebay
- sticky from auctioneer nand buyer perspective

Now we act synchronusly and face to fave (avatar)

principle #1 – change and make it obvious to user
- people form a theory about whether an experience will change within the first few moments
- as designers we must convey that an experience will change and how a user can participate

principle #2 – percieved popularity
- nodbody goes there nymore, it’s too crowded

What to do? – Events?
- events clearly spike traffic,
- can be costly,
- user ownership and particpationis more effective,
- open ended storytelling most effective

how do you make the users come back afetr the events

storytelling is key and letting them help develop it

user-driven change
- how do you show the user that change has happened.  you have stats, but the user coming in needs to see that otehrs were there if they are not immediately apparent

2.5D isometric worlds
- gaia, zwintopia,

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VIrtual Worlds 2007 – So Many Platforms, So Little Time Panel

So Many Platforms, So Little Time
There are over a dozen current and emerging immersive virtual world platforms on the market today. Here’s what we can tell you about each of them without violating an NDA. In this interactive session you will learn the overall architecture of various platforms, the pipeline for development, the performance, and the business engagement that brands and media companies must explore. If you are considering entering virtual worlds with your brand or content, this is a must attend session. Join lead Sheep such Chris Carella, John Swords, and Jonathan Collins and their take on the various platforms. This session to be moderated by Valerie Williamson.
- Chris Carella, Creative Director, The Electric Sheep Company
- John Swords, The Electric Sheep Company
- Jonathan Collins, Executive Producer, The Electric Sheep Company
- Valerie Williamson, VP of Marketing and Business Development, The Electric Sheep Company
  (moderator)

Sony Home
- delayd launch just announced
- still have millions of Ps3′s shipped, even if the console isn’t doing well
- Branded Lobbies for matchmaking (gaming)
- Sony still determining 3r party developers
- 3D studio max and maya environment
- 18-35 demo dominant
- huge opportunity for virtual goods
- Sony singstar online
    – ugc karaoke
- not clear whetehr there is web integration
- def have to work wth sony to get in world
- have to pay to get in
- will start allowing people to develop in next year

Icarus
- platform company, PC base d(not console based)
- 3d develoment engine
- vehicle capabilities are quite unique
- rapid deployemnt tools
- have many gamelike features, but also have social aspects
- not a proof of concept in the market
- electric sheep company is considering them for some projects
- ideal for from-scratch development
    – avatar interactions, search functions, world developemnt
    – as an alternative to, say, SL
- creates a walled garden
    – not portable
    – you control the environment/rules
- started as a studio
- create industry standard ap and then bring them into the environment
- web and flash and voip integration
- windows only
- you can host your own grd, they are involved at launch tho
- script in lua

Multiverse
- open standards platforms
- want to become the vw browser
- one downloaded platform and can access many worlds
- updating tool set now
- rumors of 1500 avatars on one server
- multiple models for debelopers
    – you can use all of their tools for free and then they do a rev share
    – private worlds possible
- web and flash and voip integration
- currently for own world development
- windows only
- master server, like DNS to help call up worlds
    – you can license your own master server
    – you can host your own grid
- python

Second Life
- it doesn’t behave liek a media prop, but ratehr as real estate company
    – not pay to play ness
    – marketing folks get frustrated b/c they don’t have to deal with SL per se, unless you buy land
- wont moderate the conent, unles DMCA take-down or gambling
- done a good just thus far on attracting users to cretae content for them
- working on a grid now
- limited by server currently, but still very open
    – physics engine lives on server
- mac/wondows/linux – ll with voice

Kaneva
- 3d platform with graphics like SL and There
- windows only
- focus on social networking/events
    – voting determines event content
    – users posts feedback on event
- just released a developer prog
    – you can build nad put in
- both a world and a white label program
- scripting python

There
- created before broadband
- number of set objects you can make
    – can customize or mod your own items in 3d studio max
    – limited scope
    – they will develop new machina with you, but they are involved
- closed world
    – both a world and a white label program
- great web integration
- windows only
- grid is hosted by mckenna
- no sripting, limited to their preexisting

Active worlds/Swivel Media (wells Fargo project)
- electric sheep dont develop in, but have positive

Web based clients
- Smart Fox
    – Club Penguin
    – MMORPG functionality to flash programming
- Sulake
- Gaia – heavy weight in isometric space
- Metaplace
    – 2.5D
    – Area – do it yourself flash based environment
    – put htat virtual world on any web surface
    – should be done q108
    – highly anticipated

Interesting up and comers
- Croquet starting to be interesting
    – open source
- HiPihi – China’s play
- Ogoglio looks interesting
- Quack
- Metaplce
- Sun’s wonderland
- 3B

UCG in these worlds
- there
    – all moderated, eventho it is consumer generated
    – much safer for brands
- wow a great brand that creates content for users and doesn’t depend on users completely
- IP rigths are dealt with differently
    – SL allows users to retain rights
    – Sony will reatin all rights
    – Multiverse it depends on property
    – There/Kaneva more towards platform owns rights

User acquistion is very hard
- appeal of SL’s existing audience
- Sony has preestablished marketing channels

Ecommerce
- icarus and multiverse – open however you want
- sony hasn’t given indication re: ecomm yet
- there takes a set cut
- econd life only make money ont he currency exchange

Dynamic user created developement
- Icarus, Multiverse, SL
- Can build in to your own world
- most is texturung and placing of objects
    – primarily 3rd party developement of new object tho

Hardware    
- Parallels doesn’t support DirectX9 and 10 (on 8.5)
- No partnerships with vmware either
- 3d monitors – more niche audiences and application until greater popn adopts

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Virtual Worlds 2007 – Demographics and Numbers Panel

Demographics and Numbers:  Where Things Are and Where They’re Headed

This session lays the groundwork giving you the numbers you need to
understand how to take advantage of Virtual Worlds today.  We’ll also
look at forecasts for where Virtual Worlds are going. What are the
growth projections?  And what are the factors that will promote or
inhibit growth.

- Nic Mitham, Managing Director, K Zero

growth sectors graph

- market penetration

- market development

- product development

- diversification

- on markets and products axis

market penetration

- current products into current markets

- word of mouth continues to work – viral elements

- media assists in growth

    – circle of three

    – trigger for popn growth in spec country is brand moving into space

- advertising? – cant rely purely on PR

- aging of younger popn from club penguin, whyville, habbo, etc

    – children will be outgrowing those worlds

        – i.e. flying isnt strange/novel, innovation is key

market development

- current products into new markets

- new countries – eastern europe, s amer, asia

- older dems and groups – silver surfers

- corp comm – IBM

- eductional growth – Whyville

    – 8-15

   

product development

- new products into existing markets

- easier user interfaces/better orientation

    – bridges adoption gap into early majority

    – cottage industry of SL guides

- web based remote viewers

- mobile devices

- other worlds – there, kaneva, hipihi (china)

- google my world

    – impact of google userbase/mass market penetration

   

Diversification

- new products in new markets

- category centric ‘vertical worlds’

    – football superstars

    – tribal nature that naturally develops in general worlds will lead to this

- platform centric – playstation home

- cross-world avatars

    – grows total population, not total unique users

   

Growth projections: q407-q408

- registered accounts

- SL = 10m to 20

- There – 1m t 7m

- Kaneva – .6m t 3m

- HiPiHi – 0m t 10m

- Whyville – 3m to 10m

    – european interest is driving traffic growth

- Club Penguin – 15m t 30m

- Football Superstars – 0m t 3m

Park Associates

- Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director, Broadband & Gaming, Parks Associates

Wrote report of game ads

Gloom and doom about virtual worlds of late in mass media

- but club penguin especially helps make you think otherwise

Launching a gaming study with more virtual worlds data in it in the next couple months, more formal VW study in feb or march

leading onlne virtual worlds

- SL

- NEopets

- Runescape

- Club Penguin

- Webkinz

- Virtual Laguna Beach

- There

- Entropis

(Social Network %/Virtual World %)

male (35/5)

female (29/7)

13-17 (53/8),

18-24 yo (71/10)

25-34 (40/12)

kids graduating to new virtual worlds when the restrictions are too high

TV is what people do less because of SL (and other VWs)

Residents of SL think it is a good medium for promoting a brand

Pros

- replicate the real worlds

- leverage interaction between the virtual and avataras

- does not require the players to pay full attention like in MMOG

- creates alot of real world buzz

Cons

- small base of active nd concurrent plyers

    – tech still limit amount of concurrent

- may not be appropriate for traditional in game ad formats due to low collective traffic in most areas

    – i.e. need to innovate past forums technology for user interaction

- properties set up by brands in vws require active management and maintenace

- vws currently deliver the best marketing results through organized
events, but there are technical limitations for hosting large-scale
events

- Mary Ellen Gordon, Owner, Market Truths Limited

- first RL research comp to set up operations in SL; wonner of SL business plan competition

- Our services include

    – custom proprietary research projects

    – standard (publicly avail) reports about

- Attitudes towards brands report released publicaly tomorrow

Advertising via IM in world and notecards was negative, especailly with neutral brands

Future measurement considerations

- active and passive data collection

- inworld versus cross world and cross channel

- reliability/validity

- use acceptability

Question – where is the underserved market?

- mid 40′s upwards – no worlds being created

- they have tech and willingness

- social networking crowd is not being served well either

- dating worlds

- more female (easier tech)

Question – estimate of VW users world wide and projections?

- Park Assoc will release report in next 6 months with these sorts of numbers

Question – comment on 80% of us will have a virtual life

- They all commented about how “medium rare” their result on and they were all working on more solid results

Question  how do you define active user?

- subscription = active in those worlds

- nonsubscription – one hour a month

- average user has 1.5 results

Question – how will EU VAT (value added tax) affect western VWs?

- think it’s mostly noise, esecially as most are

Question – what is most lucrtive demo

- young kids 8-15

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